6 comments:

Great photos - thanks. Looking at the numbers earlier I felt the size change wasn't that dramatic but the photos belie that - the rears look like rollers! Hopefully there will be an improvement in mechanical grip as a result and therefore better racing in the corners. Good luck to Pirelli getting the materials right.

I might be missing something here. Whilst I understand mechanical grip has increased, surely this is relative. Each car will now be faster in the corners, so how will this improve overtaking and racing?

That's a question I have had during all of this discussion too - if it increases for one, then it must for all, so how is there a net gain? One partial answer is that the aero grip is poorer for the following car, but the mechanical grip is, in theory, position independent, so the 'penalty' for following is a smaller portion of the overall grip. Therefore, a driver with more nerve can, for example, brake late to carry more speed into the corner and attempt to wedge his way in. Or, he can sweep wide and cut across on exit. Of course, if the lead car has the braver driver then it won't happen. We'll have to see how it plays out....

In images 9 and 10, The treds on the frotn inters appear to be running different directions? It runs the same direction on the full wets in all the other photos. It looks like the right front is backwards which would push water to the center of the tread, no?